Entertainment takes its brand-new type. With the development of innovation and its combination to different elements of our lives, traditional entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural programs is replaced by so-called "electronic entertainment". There you have numerous digital and animated movies that you can watch on movie houses or on your home entertainment system, cable system (CTS), and the video game system, which is popular not just to young and old players alike however also to game designers, merely because of the development of ingenious innovations that they can utilize to improve existing video game systems.
The video game system is intended for playing computer game, though there are modern game systems that allows you to have a gain access to over other forms of entertainment using such video game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Internet). Thus, it is frequently referred to as "interactive entertainment computer system" to differentiate the video game system from a machine that is used for different functions (such as computer and arcade video games).
The very first generation of computer game system started when Magnavox (an electronics company which makes tvs, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its very first video game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey created by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's appeal lasted until the release of Atari's PONG video games. Magnavox understood that they can not take on the popularity of PONG games, therefore in 1975 they developed the Odyssey 100 computer game system that will play Atari-produced PONG games.
The 2nd generation of computer game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild released the FVES (Fairchild Video Entertainment System), that made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a video game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to save microprocessor guidelines. However, because of the "video game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the video game system industry. Magnavox and Atari stayed in the video game market.
The rebirth of the video game system started when Atari launched the popular game Space Invaders. The industry was all of a sudden revived, with many gamers made purchase of an Atari computer game system just for Space Intruders. Simply put, with the appeal of Area Invaders, Atari dominated the video game industry throughout the 80s.
Video game system's 3rd generation came into seeking the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported full color, high resolution, and tiled background video gaming system. It was initially released in Japan and it was later given the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And much like Atari's Space Invaders, the release of Nintendo's well-known Super Mario Brothers was a huge success, which totally restored the suffering video game system market in the early months of 1983.
Sega meant to compete with Nintendo, however they stopped working to develop significant market share. It was till 1988 when Sega released the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the exact same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States and Europe territories. Two years later on, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari returned with their brand-new computer game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems might display more onscreen colors and the latter used a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, opted to launch new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Several years later on, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the fifth generation of computer game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The sixth generation of video game systems followed, involving Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last computer game system and the first Internet-ready video game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Video Game Cube which is their first system to utilize game CDs), and the beginner Microsoft (Xbox).
The latest generation of computer game systems is now gradually going into the game video games new market. These are as follows:
- Microsoft's Xbox, which was released on November 22, 2005;
- Sony's PlayStation 3, which is schedule to be launched on November 11, 2006 (Japan), November 17 of the exact same year (The United States and Canada), and March 2007 (Europe); and
- Nintendo's Wii, which is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2006 (The United States And Canada), December 2 of the exact same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).
The advancement of video game system does not end here. There will be future generations of video game system being established as of this minute, which will defy the method we define "entertainment".